February 23, 2026: The Arctic Sea ice has experienced a slight decrease of 0.14% for the week. This is a change from 14.206 M km2 on February 16^th  to 14.186 M km2. The sea ice extent is the 4^th lowest sea ice extent for February 23^rd in the satellite time series going back to 1979. The lowest sea ice extent in the 47-year satellite time series for 23 February was in 2025 measured at 13.910 M km2. The Arctic Sea ice extent decrease this last week was not uncommon as we are near the sea ice maximum which typically occurs in mid-to-late March.  The lowest recorded Arctic Sea ice extent was 14.307 on March 22^nd 2025.  The current Arctic Sea ice extent is 0.121 M km2 short of passing that record, but also has 0.276 M km2 or 1.98% more Arctic Sea ice coverage than the record holding year of 2025. Of note, this year the Bering Sea ice cover near Bristol Bay and the Alaska Peninsula has been near the 1981-2010 median with Eastern Canada, the European Arctic, and the Sea of Okhotsk accounting for much of the ice extent shortage.